Prior art techniques have been developed for inserting static tracers into software code so that it is possible to determine if a piece of software has been copied or pirated. Prior art tracers are of a static nature in that they are merely lines of code that do nothing and are ignored by the program as it runs. However, these lines of do nothing code are in the program code and if the code has been copied they will appear in the copied version of the code and will be evidence of copying This is true, because anyone who writes original code would not include the tracer in the program code. If a person writing original code decided to insert a tracer into a program, the chances of the tracer being the same code and of it being located in the same position within the real code would be extremely remote.
Those who copy software are becoming more sophisticated, and are de-compiling the software which they wish to copy so that they can read it and make subtle changes to it. The fact remains that the work is copied in the main and constitutes an infringement of copyright in many jurisdictions. However, since the sophisticated copier can read the code he is about to copy he can find the static tracer code, since it does nothing, and remove it from the program prior to copying. This is the drawback of inserting a static tracer into program code.
In a similar manner, sophisticated hardware copiers are reverse engineering micro chips or integrated circuits and using their knowledge of the reverse engineered chip are making clones of that chip without having to go through the expensive design and development stage.